The ghost in the museum

When we were visiting the Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art this afternoon, I came across a painting that made me pause then do a double take.  It was part of an exhibition of mostly 19th century Polish artwork.  The painter was Jan Matejko and the subject was Stańczyk, a famous Polish court jester (1480-1560) employed by three different kings.  Stańczyk in this painting looked uncannily like John Hardman, an actor I worked with in the 80s.

Stańczyk sits alone and depressed in a brightly lit room while a ball is in progress.  The letter on the desk announces the loss of Smolensk to the Grand Duchy of Moscow.  Stańczyk’s sadness comes from the awareness of impending disaster that the court is trying to ignore.  But it wasn’t just Stańczyk’s likeness to Hardman that spoke to me; it was how it expressed a current mood, a feeling about the world situation that being in Japan can’t dismiss.